This update is shared in SEG’s autumn 2020 newsletter. Join our new mailing list to get the latest updates about our research and events on transitions to sustainable, low-carbon energy systems.

The Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS) aims to understand the changes in energy demand needed for the transition to a secure and affordable low-carbon energy system.

SEG researchers lead CREDS’ digital society theme, researching the effects that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are having have on energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Here’s what’s been happening in CREDS’ digital society theme recently…

Media coverage. With more of us working from home than ever, our April 2020 paper A systematic review of the energy and climate impacts of teleworking received widespread interest from the media and policy makers. The coverage focussed on the paper’s perhaps surprising finding – that teleworking does not necessarily save energy. Read about it in the Telegraph, Business Green and inews.co.uk.

Blog. Lockdown Lifestyle: Does Working from Home Reduce Carbon Emissions? explores the teleworking paper mentioned above.  

Event. Following the success of our November 2019 Innovation Forum on Energy Service Business Models, the Greater Brighton Energy Working Group is undertaking a series of innovation forums for the Greater Brighton region, which SPRU will lead. Starting in November 2020, the forums will bring regional actors together to learn and collaborate on the delivery of the Greater Brighton Energy Plan, ultimately contributing to the future energy security and sustainability of the region.

Partnership. We’ve been working with the Energy Systems Catapult’s Living Lab on our User acceptance of smart homes project, to find out why people heat their homes the way they do. New paper Humanizing heat as a service: Cost, creature comforts and the “energy phenomenology” of smart heating controls in the United Kingdom explores the many different experiences, preferences, identities and needs which shape people’s heating practices.

New projects. We’ve launched two new projects exploring the energy demand implications of technologies that Covid-19 has brought into the public eye: The Energy Impacts of 5G Technologies, and Teleworking and UK Energy Demand.

New publications

A systematic review of the energy and climate impacts of teleworking. A. Hook, V. Court, B. K. Sovacool and S. Sorrell, Environmental Research Letters.

Digitalisation of goods: a systematic review of the determinants and magnitude of the impacts on energy consumption. V. Court and S. Sorrell, Environmental Research Letters.

The limits of energy sufficiency: A review of the evidence for rebound effects and negative spillovers from behavioural change. S. Sorrell, B. Gatersleben, A. Druckman, Energy Research & Social Science.

Hot transformations: Governing rapid and deep household heating transitions in China, Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom, Benjamin K. Sovacool and Mari Martiskainen, Energy Policy.

Humanizing heat as a service: Cost, creature comforts and the “energy phenomenology” of smart heating controls in the United Kingdom. B.K. Sovacool, B.K., J. Osborn, M. Martiskainen, A. Anaam and M. Lipson, Energy & Climate Change.

Critically reviewing smart home technology applications and business models in Europe. D.D. Furszyfer Del Rio, B.K. Sovacool, N. Bergman, K.E. Makucha, Energy Policy.

Structural Change for a Post-Growth Economy: Investigating the Relationship between Embodied Energy Intensity and Labour Productivity. Tim Foxon, Sustainability.

‘The Transition from a Fossil-Fuel Economy to a Knowledge Economy’, Handbook on Green Growth. Roger Fouqet, Edward Elgar Publications.

Culture and low-carbon energy transitions. Benjamin K. Sovacool and Steve Griffiths, Nature Sustainability.